Valerie Goodman Gallery is delighted to announce a solo presentation of work by Jacques Jarrige, 18 Angels, which will open on Thursday January 18 and be on view through Friday, February 16, 2018.

French artist Jacques Jarrige’s work over the last thirty years has always focused on the dialogue around the relation of person to object. In all of his endeavors from sculpture, to jewelry or fabrication of objects for the home, he has sought to find a balance between the disparate qualities of artist, viewer, and object. When he creates large or small-scale sculptures - indoor, outdoors or to wear on the body or when he sculpts lighting, tables or seats Jarrige always places the desires of the object first.

“I experience very deeply my role as one of a messenger” says Jarrige “what I manifest is already there. I take it in, but unlike the experience of angels, it is with my body and my humanity that I relay the message.” Jarrige invites the viewer to experience as he did the mystery of our presence in the world, how we belong together. When we capture the unexpected in his seemingly simple pair of undulating metal stems, or the hammered surface of one of his delicate brass figures; we have the propensity to feel more deeply. He brings a new structure of participation to the exchange of time spent by the viewer and object in tandem with the recognition of the other.

For the upcoming exhibition, Jarrige has created 18 sculptures formed from sheets of brass and aluminum that examine permeation of void and form, time and space. “Jacques Jarrige inserts form into space as if it were a living medium… the pulsating line not only gives life to the form but also to its surroundings. ” says French critic and collector Laurent Charreyron.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Jarrige’s first solo show at the Hotel de Ville in Paris 20 years ago where he presented 18 functional sculpted objects “18 Angels”. His approach to art has not wavered but with maturity his forms have become more essential and he has expanded his role of spokesperson to pure art forms.

“To express only the essential…Stripping the form to find the original flawlessness, Jacques Jarrige has developed a vocabulary that is simple and free; the literal incarnation of his human and spiritual experience,“ continues Charreryron.

French essayist and critic Serge Bramly who was moved to write a poem rather than an introduction to Jarrige’s show in 1998 captures well his relentless effort to capture and pass on to the viewer the marvel that is our capacity to be in the world and create. Bramly wrote, “… known for his patience, mixing his cards on a carpet of lights, the winged messenger combines the same words, always with a moving perseverance”. At the Valerie Goodman Gallery the sculptures are arranged with his functional objects, selected from the original 1998 show and more recent work. The pieces vary from a number of twisting metal forms on wooden blocks,; hanging mobiles, abstract figurines in repose, and a number of tabletop stabiles. This is the first presentation of a body of work created in 2017 to counterpoint and examine large scale sculptures simultaneously installed at the Rockland Center for the Art’s Sculpture Garden (RoCA ) in Nyack NY and at a community center outside Paris in the fall of 2107.

Jacques Jarrige’s work was first exhibited in Paris at the avant-garde gallery in the 80’s; En Attendant les Barbares along side artists Garrouste, Bonnetti, Eric Schmitt and others. A number of his sculptures and objects are collected at museum and institutions; Mobilier National, Musee d’ Orleans, Centre National des Arts Plastiques among them. Recent solo exhibitions include “Clouds“ (2010), “Meanders” (2012) and “New Objects” (2017) at Valerie Goodman Gallery. Jarrige recently participated in a number of group shows at Queens Museum (2013 and 2015), Museum of Art and Design (2015), Aqua Miami (2015) and at the Old Pfizer building in Brooklyn, NY (2016 and 2017).

“18 Angels” is in an attempt to reconfigure the semantics of creation, experience, and object-ness. The Valerie Goodman Gallery provides a space for the viewers to reclaim their place in the reformulated triarchy that will continue to define new art for the coming century.